Guide

How AI video clipping works

An AI video clipper turns a long video into short vertical clips. It transcribes every word, scores each moment for hook, payoff and pacing, cuts the best ones on word boundaries, reframes them to 9:16 around whoever is speaking and adds animated captions. In shitShorts every clip then opens as an editable project, so nothing is locked in

Free plan: about 15 clips a month (300 credits) · no card needed

A long video in, vertical clips out · Real shitShorts output

By the shitShorts team · Published · We make shitShorts, one of the tools mentioned here

Step by step

  1. 01

    Transcribe

    Every word is transcribed with its timing, so cuts can land between words

  2. 02

    Score the moments

    Overlapping windows are scored for hook, payoff, pacing and whether they stand alone

  3. 03

    Critique

    A second, stricter pass drops picks that only make sense with the rest of the video

  4. 04

    Reframe to 9:16

    The crop follows the active speaker, splits into tiles for two people, or follows the action

  5. 05

    Caption

    Word-timed animated captions in your theme, placed clear of the platform buttons

What an AI video clipper does

Paste a YouTube link or upload a podcast, interview, stream or match. The AI clipper transcribes every word, scores each moment for hook, payoff and pacing, cuts the best ones, reframes them to 9:16 around whoever is speaking and adds animated captions

Every clip opens as an editable project in the browser Studio. You can trim a cut, fix a misheard name, change the layout or the caption theme, then export an MP4 or schedule it

Clipping tools for each kind of video

AI video clipper for long videos. Drop in a podcast, interview, stream or match and get vertical clips that are already reframed, captioned and ranked by how likely they are to hold attention

Turn a YouTube video into Shorts. Paste the link, pick how many clips you want, and get 9:16 Shorts that are cut on real moments, reframed around the speaker and captioned word by word

Podcast clips that follow whoever is talking. Two or three people at a table, one camera wide: the clipper works out who is speaking at every moment and cuts the vertical frame to them, with captions and a hook on top

Reframe landscape video to vertical, automatically. Turn 16:9 into 9:16 without keyframing a single crop. The frame follows faces, the active speaker or the ball, and cuts cleanly when the subject changes

Sports highlights, cut vertical and kept on the ball. The clipper watches for crowd noise, celebrations and commentary peaks, then frames each highlight on the play with object tracking instead of a fixed centre crop

Long video to Shorts, with AI doing the watching. Upload a recording or paste a YouTube link. The AI reads the whole thing, picks the moments that stand on their own, and hands back vertical clips with captions and a speaker-following crop

Podcast to Shorts: one episode, a week of clips. Upload the episode or paste its YouTube link and get vertical clips of the best moments, cut on clean lines, framed on whoever is speaking and captioned for sound-off viewing

Interview clips that frame whoever is answering. Upload an interview or paste a YouTube link. The AI finds the answers that work without the question, cuts them to 9:16 on the right person and captions every word

Turn a webinar recording into short clips. An hour of webinar has five or six moments worth sharing. Upload the recording and the AI finds them, frames the speaker in 9:16 and captions every word for sound-off feeds

Twitch clip maker: stream VODs into vertical clips. Upload a stream VOD and the AI finds the hype moments, reactions and best lines, then cuts vertical clips with captions for TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Reels

TikTok clip maker for long videos. Paste a YouTube link or upload a recording and get TikTok-ready clips: hook first, cut on clean lines, framed on the speaker and captioned for the For You feed

Make Instagram Reels from a long video. Upload a long video or paste a YouTube link and get Reels: the best moments, cropped to 9:16 around whoever is talking, with captions that sit clear of Instagram's buttons

Editing the clips

Voice, music and captions share one timeline. Captions are timed from the audio and trims snap to words, so a tightened cut never clips a syllable. Exports go up to 4K and never cost credits, and finished clips can be scheduled to eight networks

What it costs

The free plan includes 300 credits a month, about 15 clips, with 720p exports and a small watermark. The Clipper plan at $10 a month gives 1,000 credits, about 50 clips, at 1080p with no watermark and 300 clip exports a month. A failed run is refunded automatically, and editing and previews never cost credits

FAQ

Questions people ask

Updated October 2026

What's the best free AI video clipper?
It depends on your footage, but shitShorts is a strong free option: the free plan gives 300 credits a month, about 15 clips, with speaker-tracked 9:16 reframing, AI moment scoring and animated captions (720p with a small watermark). OpusClip also has a free plan, Klap gives one free video, and Munch and Submagic are trial-only. You can try shitShorts with no sign-up at shitshorts.com/try/clipper
Do I own what I make?
Yes. Your uploads, renders and projects are yours. AI footage follows the licence of the model you chose; we show it next to each model
Can I bring a YouTube link instead of uploading?
Yes — paste a link or upload a file. For client work we recommend uploading your own master for the best quality and the cleanest rights story
Which platforms can I schedule to?
YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, LinkedIn, X, Threads and Pinterest, each with its own caption, title and hashtags
How does Claude fit in?
Claude plans and builds motion-graphics projects with real editor tools, renders frames, critiques them and fixes what looks off. On Pro you can also drive shitShorts from Claude directly
Is there a free plan?
Yes: 300 credits a month, which is about 15 clips (a clip costs about 20 credits), plus 720p exports with a small watermark. Upgrade or top up any time